weekday mornings. catch up on what happened overnight with a full morning brief. get a first hand look with in-depth reports and investigations. start weekday mornings with al jazeera america. open your eyes to a world in motion. >> righting a wrong from a dark chant are in american history. >> he managed to get the shotgun barrel in. the other detective told him "go ahead below his [ bleep ] head off." why chicago agreed to pay millions in examination an alarming study ranking america last in maternal medicine. >> the target will move in the

wind if it moves slowly you won't feel it and castles in the sky. new technology helping build the tallest and thinnest skyscrapers in the world. good evening, i'm antonio mora, and this is al jazeera america. chicago is paying up a settlement with dozens of victims of police torture. john terrett joins us on the second city's first of its kind administration. >> that's right. what we are seeing is a first, never seen before in the country until now. chicago is admitting wrongdoing by the police department stretching over a period including the '70s, '80s and 1990s. the council is ready to move on. financial repatriations and others were approved today. >> reporter: chicago's mayor ron emanuel offering an apology over

police practices in the past three decades. >> this is an essential step in writing a wrong, removing a stain on the reputation of this great city and the people that make up the city. governor the mike is yours. >> reporter: wednesday they announced they were setting aside $70 million for victims of torture in the '70s, '80s and '90s, roughly $100,000, and education and health. african-american men were tortured by john bert and his team of southside detectives. known as the midnight crew they used electric shocks beating, suffocation and russian roulette tactics to force suspects to confess. >> i was scared to death, i didn't want to show it. my mind felt like my head was beak blown off when i heard the

click, and then they took the shotgun barrel out of my mouth put me in the back seat of a car, and my feet were outside of the car. i was still handcuffed. they pulled down my pants and started to shock me with an electric cow prod. >> victims, families and supporters, some wearing repatriations and t-shirts stood and applauded. the council's unanimous i don't think on referendums on wednesday. >> this is the first time by city in the united states of america acknowledged racist police practices and provided reparations and to be clear, reparations for black people in this instance. that is a huge landmark. >> reporter: the repatriation package is the work of midnight

crew survivors, amnesty international, and the mayor. as for john birch, after being let go from the force he was committed of percentagy and justice in 2010, spending four years behind bars. he lives in florida on a chicago police pension. >> he's in a halfway house. he can't be charged with crimes in relation to the torture because the statute of limitations has run out. >> maryland's governor lifted the state of emergency in baltimore. the national guard pulled out of the city and the move comes less than a week after charges against police officers and the death of freddie gray. the city's mayor said sa lot more is needed to rebuild trust with the african-american community. and called on the federal government to helpful. >> in order to achieve the sustainable and significant reform that we want to see, that i want to see, that the sit self-defence want to see in baltimore, i request the

department of justice conduct a federal pattern or practice into the baltimore city police department. the mayor's request comes a day already u.s. attorney-general loretta lynch visited the city. community leaders were told a federal rights probe was underway. civilians planes flew over baltimore. civil liberties advocates want to know who was behind them and what in fact they were gathering. >> reporter: as protesters marched in baltimore after the death of freddie gray. few were aware that high above planes were circling. alert watches saw them and tweeted about it tipping off their presence. information about the registration and flight path of the planes appeared on sites. two planes, one propeller driven, the other a small jets flying formations at night for

up to three days this past weekend. why, however is a mystery that trouble said civil liberties act fists. >> that raises a lot of questions. they are used to sweep up information by tens of thousands of people. >> according to "the washington post." it was used to collect information. the a.c.l.u. says technology exist to collect information on cars over a huge area. or it was argued information was used to track telephones. >> basically you can watch a city and track everywhere that everyone is going. it sweeps more broadly than the protests themselves. that's something the police departments thought about deploying on a routine basis.

>> so far the fbi and baltimore police have not explained what the planes were doing. >> while anger at authorities grew below the american civil liberties union filed requests with several federal agencies to find out more about the planes under the freedom of information act. >> bill clinton says the tough on crime policies administration pushed in the '90s went too far. in 1994 clinton signed a bill that included the federal three strikes policy and lengthened gaol sentences, creating more prisons. he told cnn his policy was too focused on punishment and not enough on rehabilitation. >> we cast too wide a net. we have too many in prison. we put so many in prison that it wasn't enough money left to educate them train them for new

jobs and increase chances when they came out. we are wasting too much money locking people up that don't have to be there. clinton thinks the law should we changed. former secretary of state hillary clinton is the leading candidate for the democratic presidential nomination french investigators believe the co-pilot accused of intentionally crashing a plane in march practised the crash on an earlier flight hours before the disaster andreas lubitz adjusted the altitude dial of the germanwings plane to 100 feet. officials say the findings may support the evidence that the crash of the later flight was premeditated the f.a.a. says it will work with private companies to test commercial drone us. the government announced a path finder programme, looking at drone use in urban areas and studying drone flights. critics say the gough is acting

too slowly to develop new rules. anyone that wants to fly a drone at the moment must get permission from the f.a.a. today a judge held a closed door conference with property owners and lawyers, following a ruling finding the government was partially responsible for some of the flooding following hurricane katrina. that news was welcome to the home owners that lost everything. >> every few weeks elmo barnes returned to his old neighbourhood. >> my house was completely under water. >> reporter: a decade after hurricane katrina's flooding barnes and hundreds of others that lost property in the area finally are seeing justice. a federal claims judge determined what residents long insisted that a shipping canal

built by the army corp of engineers was largely to blame for the flooding in the lower ninth ward and the parish. and they must pay for damage. >> they didn't do much homework. >> reporter: the core built the mississippi gulf outlet in the 1960s. revved to as mr go. it was a short cut for ships going between the new orleans port and mississippi river. the judge found that 76 mile canal was poorly constructed and maintained and substantially expanded and eroded causing a storm surge exacerbated by a funnel effect. the judge called the canal a ticking time bomb mark davis is an environmental law attorney and professor at 2-lane university. >> she said "you should have

foreseen this and since it was foreseeable you'll be responsible." >> reporter: it's a hard fought victory for the parish and 17 plaintiffs who sued the government 10 years ago. the u.s. government is typically immune to flood-related projects. the court found this was different since the canal was built for navigation. >> the message recouping from the decision is the people can hold the government accountable. >> reporter: the canal was closed in 2009. the department of justice told al jazeera it is reviewing the judge's decision. it's unclear if the federal government plans to appeal. how much the government will pay in damages remains to be seen. if a judge grants class action status elmo barnes and others who live in st. bernard's parish and the lower ninth ward can sue for reparation.

>> i don't see getting restitution, but i'd like to see these mistakes not happening again. >> 39 tornados have been reported across three states tonight. meteorologist kevin corriveau has been tracking an active storm front. it's been a rough week. >> it has. today is the worst we have seen we are looking at a tornado that was across parts of oklahoma. we had seen 39 tornados. that number will go up through the rest of the night. we have tornado watches and warnings in effect from nebraska all the way back to texas. take a look at the tornados we have seen today. a lot of damage in parts of the area. i want to show you damage that has come out towards oklahoma. we have seen over buildings in homes - do you have the video of tornado damage 50 homes and

rain across the region. there's injuries associated with the tornado. and the overnight hours make it difficult when the tornados do come through in the early morning hours. what we expect to see. we have tornado warnings from kansas. it will continue for the next few hours. >> thank you. a tornado touched down in northern germany. someone was able to record it as it moved through the countryside. one killed dozens injured. while tornado are common in the u.s. they are rare in europe a difficult decision that thousands of new parents are forced to make. most never speak of it. al jazeera look at babies born with ambiguous gender and the controversial treatment ondemed by the united nations. >> i've been with the company 28 years and never seen anything like that coming through. >> how ordering food delivery

may have saved the life of a woman and kids. workers at a pizza chain help to end a hostage situation.

pass >> the order had come through, she edited her ticket. on the bottom it said hostage help and the top. get 911 help. >> a florida woman may have saved her life with an off the ticket request. sheryl and her children were held hostage by here knife-wielding boyfriend. he attacked her and wouldn't let her leave the phone, but allowed her to use the app to order the food. >> the boyfriend never heard about it. the first words were "i'm not coming out, because i know i'm going to gaol. >> he surrendered to officers. he's facing a number of charges. >> an aid to the attorney-general was one of three people arrested accused of

running a fictitious police department. the masonic police department claimed to have ties to the temp lar. the authorities vetted after refusing letters from a chief at a fake police force. thousands of babies are born with ambiguous gender and the united nations condemned normalization surgery. parents face is decision when their children are born with intersexuality. >> reporter: today this person doesn't person as he or she, but they. >> i thought i was a girl. people called me she. jennifer was my real name. >> until 18 she identified as female of the living and believing she was a girl. she never of ovaries and has xy chromosomes, typical in boys.

it's known as intersex. >> it's an individual that is born with not just uniform male or film ail parts, but they can have combinations of both. >> doctors and parents decide what sex a child should be and the gen tailia would be modified. >> i wish with all my being and heart that they would have left me exactly how i was born. >> reporter: choosing surgery at the early stage is controversial. activists and bioethicists say individuals should be alt have a choice. >> we are bad at identifying how the child will identify male or female. that is left up to the patient, hill or herself. >> it's a reason a programme in

chicago began what it says is a wholistic approach to intersex and dsg treatment. the gender and sex programme includes consultations with neurologists, surgeons and psychologists. >> the decision is one they feel more comfortable with. in a perfect world, we wouldn't do surgery early on unless there was a medical reason it had to be done. >> it's a debate raising questions about informed consent, gender identity and patient rites a new study is raising questions about america's health care particularly for mothers and children, as bisi onile-ere reports, the united states rank said worst for maternal health among the world's developed countries. >> reporter: the report looked at the best and worse countries to be a mother based on five indicators. one being maternal mortality. the study by child advocacy

group, save the children. women this the united states face a 1:1,800 risk of maternal desk. the highest risk of any country in the world. an american women s 10 times more liking to die as a polish woman. norway is the safest. somali the most dangerous. according to the mother's index rank, united states came in 33rd. the study looked at infant mortality, and in a survey of 25 capital cities washington d.c. had the highest rate. the infant mortality rate is three times higher than stockholm and tokyo. in d c the gap between the rich and poor makes for debate among legislators and is a factor in the survival rate of babies. in 2013, in the poorest

neighbourhood, there was 10.9 deaths compared to live births. it made the infant mortality rate close to 10 times higher in the poorest neighbourhood compared to the wealthiest community. in recent years it cut the mortality rate mortality rate half and the porest neighbourhoods continue to have the highest rates the nordic countries lead the way when it comes to health care for mother. according to the study, norway is best. among the worst places somali - they get the lowest marks, followed by democratic republic of congo central african republic mali and niger. they are among the longest of nations where the u.s. has been working to improve medical care. threats to that work bought

elton john to capital hill. he testified on global health issues telling law makers that they need to continue to fund efforts. he said that it is in their power to turn aids from an epidemic into an illness. >> i'm here with a simple mess take - the aids epidemic is not over. america's leadership is critical. there's a window for opportunity, a window where we can see the end of aides within my lifetime. we cannot aired to let the window closed john created a foundation to help the u.s. government with health care and aids prevention president binyamin netanyahu unveiled a few coalition, just barely i head of the jewish home party.

despite a convincing victory, he struggled to find support in the knesset. the agreement with bennett gives the party a one-seat majority. less than two hours before binyamin netanyahu would have been legally required to step down as prime minister. it's election day in the u.k. and the race for prime minister is too close to call. in a little more than three hours, 50 million voters are expected to head to the polls. david cameron's party is shownway slight lead. the president of chile is trying to hold on to her job. faced with plummeting ratings, michelle bachelet told her cabinet to resign during a tv interview. saying some will be moved to other posts and promises to have a new cabinet by the weekend. >> former speaker of the house jim rice has died. he was forced to resign because

of an ethics scandal. >> a step to greater safety in space travel. a nation that ended with a splash down in the atlanta the pope is travelling and he didn't have to leave the vatican.

three. two. one. we have ignition. spacex successfully launched a dragon capsule at cape canaveral. it is designed to bring a crew to safety in case of emergency. it was launched 5,000 feet in the air and parachuted into the atlanta in it town where you can't be too big or thin, skyscrapers are an exception, with super tall and skinny buildings in new york changing the skyline. >> reporter: there's a new kind of skyscraper going up in new

york city. super tall knife-like towers for the rich. the tallest boasts views of central park the whole of manhattan. it feels like you can see china. it costs $95 million. we got inside while it was under construction. >> it's a beautiful view. >> reporter: sylvian markus was the engineer behind every tall building. >> there are so many buildings that i'm looking around. >> i was looking at the portfolio. >> reporter: for him, the height is not the challenge. the challenge is that in manhattan you have to make it very thin. >> width of the building multipled by 15 is equal to the hight of the building. thing of a child's ruler, it is

skinny. the north tower of the world trade center had a ratio of 1: of the 7. 432 park avenue has 1:15, looking down on the original world trade center and the top floor. that creates a set of problems. robin is designing another superslender tower on east 37 street for a turkish developer. most people under structure in a building as something that holds it up. but the nature of tall buildings, even ones that are less slender than this is much more about the way that the wind interacts with a tall building. the power will move in the wind. if it moves slowly, you don't feel it. >> a pair of 650 tonne pendulums counter the movement. at five lengths, there's no

window to let the wind through. in spite of that it's unnerving to be up there. >> there's more than 10 buildings that are emerging on the sky line. i am sure there'll be more in the next coming years. these towers are the future of new york and a select few residents see the future from on high. for everyone else in the city, a form of engineering serves to elevate the rich furtherer above the rest technology on new buildings is so advance architects say resident won't feel the building shake when the wind blows. the harlem globetrotters has an honorary member pope francis visited and received a jersey and practised spinning the

basketball on his finger. others include enry kissinger and nelson mandela. i'm more thank you for joining us. for the latest room head to aljazeera.com. ray suarez is next with "inside story". have a great night. [ ♪ ] it happened faster than anyone could have predict. in 2004 massachusetts was the only state where same-sex couples could marry. over a decade later it's legal in 36 states and the district of columbia and public opinion changed swiftly. but the political and legal shoving matches over redefines marriage are far from offer. whatever way the supreme court